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Anxiety

Last updated: Wed, Jul 31, 2024

It seems that it's hard to be relaxed while you're in pain. (Breath deeply......ahhh!) One author reports the following incidences for pain patients being treated in tertiary (in-patient referral) facilities. Bear in mind that this is a set of patients with unusually severe problems:1

Panic disorder11%
Panic disorder with agoraphobia2.1%
Generalized anxiety disorder15-20%
Obsessive-compulsive disorder1.1%
PTSD7-39%
Phobic disorder9%
Social phobia11%
Adjustment disorder with anxious mood42.8%
Table 1: Estimated incidence of various anxious conditions in chronic pain patients

There is a probable link between anxiety in pain patients and the tendency of pain to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system. (Pain Science 4: Partner Systems.)